From Cookson & Persell's `Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools'--Part 14

In their 1985 book, Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools, Peter W. Cookson Jr. and Cardine Hodges Persell wrote the following about the U.S. power elite's private school and elite prep school educational system and indicated how prep school academic life differs from academic life in most U.S. public schools:

“…Children of wealthy or powerful families…may worry, `Did I get these grades because of my work or because of my parents?’…

“…On average, the class size in boarding school is 12 to 15 students, with some being as small as 4 or 5, compared to 32 students per class in New York City, for example…Most public high-school teachers have 5 classes each school day in which approximately 30 students are enrolled, a total of 150 students a day. Boarding school teachers usually have 4 classes of 15 or fewer students, totaling 60 students or less…There is no back row at prep school, as almost everyone sits around a table or in a circle…Students who need individual attention can find it at prep schools…Forty-eight percent of prep school students watch no television, and only 12 percent watch more than 2 hours per day during the school week…”